Dota 2's The International 2014 sees 6 teams eliminated in the fourth day of group play

What a killer three days we've seen in Dota 2's biggest tournament of the year, The International 2014. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday each saw 36 matches played each day for a total of 108 games. The players must be absolutely exhausted, but we're only scratching the surface of what's to come. The tournament itself doesn't even begin until Friday, July 18! Don't tell that to the teams that have already had their chances snuffed, though. Broken dreams.

Day four is a short day, with only twelve scheduled matches (and room for tie-breakers afterwards). Those hours unfilled by games will instead be filled with sadness, as six teams will also be eliminated today. Yes, by the end of day four every team will have played every other for a total of 15 games for each. Six of those teams, the teams with the worst records, will be going home. Two more teams will be headed home tomorrow, but let's not bury anyone before the clock strikes noon.

One of the six eliminated teams to be decided this team already has their fate written in stone. No matter how the matches go today, Arrow's performance has doomed them to elimination. With only two wins and eleven losses, Arrow can't win their way back into the top 10. Two other teams, Empire and Na'Vi.US, not only have to win each of their games, but they must rely on four other teams to lose at least one of their matches. All four. All in all, with just twelve scheduled matches, nine teams could potentially climb in or fall out of the standings. That's just how close The International 2014 has been.

With that said, let's let the games begin. Should there be any tie scenarios across the cut-off line, all tied teams will play each other, with the winners moving on and the losers going on. Let's all hope for a long day, alright?

Below this point lie spoilers, so anyone who would like to experience the games first by themselves: please stop reading here. There will be a discussion of the events of the day as well as the final standings.

As should be obvious from the standings, all hell broke loose today during the final matches of The International 2014's first phase of the group stage. There were indeed nine different teams which could have either been knocked down or climbed up at the start. Ultimately, two teams secured their positions (Na'Vi and Titan), two teams had their fates out of their own hands and lost (Empire and Na'Vi.US), two teams had the opportunity to join in on a final tie-breaker and choked in their final matches (Fnatic and Alliance), and three teams tied to fill the final two spots that continue on (mousesports, NewBee and LGD).

Words can't describe the struggle of Alliance and Fnatic trying to climb into that tie-breaker. If I could recommend any matches, I'd recommend those Alliance, Fnatic and mousesports matches. There's a lot of heart going into those games. Alliance even brought out their 2014 strats (Wisp and Chaos Knight, or Naga Siren split push, anyone?). It's sad to see any of them go.

The three- way tie ended up between mousesports, NewBee and LGD, forcing each to team play one another after the regularly schedule matches had already finished. Ultimately, NewBee defeated both mousesports and LGD, while LGD defeated mousesports alone. Only two of the three teams could continue on, so despite mousesports huge push they're now eliminated from the tournament. All other tie-breaks in the standings were decided by previous matches and would require a much more complicated and detailed explanation than I could summarize easily.

That's the end of day four, but it'd be rude of me not to prepare everyone for the next two days. Phase two of the group stage will result in two more teams being eliminated as the final, final standings are hammered down. Everyone beyond the top two teams and the already eliminated will be split into two groups and forced to battle a one-lane bracket of best-2-of-3 matches to find their final positioning.

Sunday will start with LGD vs. Liquid to decide who goes home, though the winner could potential climb themselves all the way into the winners bracket. Other teams in their bracket include Cloud9, who will face the winner of LGD vs. Liquid, and DK, who will face the winner of the Cloud9 match. On Monday, a similar elimination match will be played by Titan and NewBee, followed by a Na'Vi match and then an iG best of three.

Is that enough? I'm exhausted just writing about it all. Have a good weekend everyone, and wake up early tomorrow (9AM PDT) for Liquid vs. LGD.

I'm not an Alliance fan but I do feel bad for them. As the Fnatic dream is over ( ) I will now be fully backing DK, hopefully to end the dream team's run with a dream win as rumors has it DK are splitting up after the event.